Floyd Mayweather Jr and music producer DJ Khaled have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for promoting crypto investments in initial coin offerings (Icos) without letting it be known that they were getting paid for it.
The two celebrities arrived at settlements with the SEC and agreed against promoting any securities, not even digital ones. Dj Khaled and Floyd Mayweather agreed to not take part in the practice for two and three years respectively according to a Thursday SEC statement.
The two popular individuals agreed to give back all the proceeds they had made to the SEC together with penalties and interest. A big part of the SEC’s “beef” with the two artists is their failure to disclose certain payments from different ICO projects.
Khaled was quiet about a 50,000 payment from Centra tech, while Floyd Mayweather JR also kept quiet about a 300,000 payment from the same firm. Centra tech has found itself in hot soup with the commission after being charged with putting out a fraudulent ICO.
Both Khaled and Mayweather have found themselves in trouble after having promoted Centra tech’s ICO to their followers. Floyd gave away the hint that a lot of crypto firms were currently approaching him to promote their ICOs after he tweeted “You can call me Floyd Crypto Mayweather from now on,”
Following the charges against the two popular artists, the SEC has reminded would-be investors to be careful about ICOs promoted by celebrities since there is a big chance a lot of them could be fraudulent. The charges against Dj Khaled and Floyd Mayweather are a first since the SEC has never before charged individuals for promoting ICOs.
